I'm working on fixing up my kit to look more historically accurate. I upgraded to a better nasal helm, switched to a wool surcoat (from cotton), and traded up to riveted maille. It's all looking pretty great...to me anyway. Unfortunately, one problem persists. My maille coif just drapes over my head and shoulders rather than conforming to the shape of my head and neck. It also leaves a huge gaping hole over under my chin, so my throat would be extremely exposed. Needless to say, this doesn't jive with any period stone effigies or manuscripts.

Note how the maille ends just over the top of the chin, and exposes only the face. I tried lacing a leather thong through the neck of the coif, but it didn't pull off the same effect.

Does anybody have any ideas on how I can make my coif look better? I'm really hoping that the answer isn't "get one custom made." I could buy some more rings and a riveting tool if necessary. I have also seen modern illustrations of the maille coif being laced up the back, but again, I'm just not sure. Any advice any of you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

What you are looking at in the 2nd photo is an integrated coif with an aventail.

If you are using a separate mail coif, then the facial opening doesn't have to be very large because you can remove the coif by pulling it off over your head. Thus, if you want to make the facial opening smaller, buy some rings and a riveting tool and add some rings to make the facial opening smaller and cover your chin. However, such a coif is never going to conform to your neck like in the picture above.

An integrated mail coif, that is woven into the hauberk, has to have a large facial opening so that the coif can be be pulled back off the head when not in combat. This large facial opening leaves the face and chin exposed, as in your first photo. The Medieval solution is the aventail, an additional flap of mail that is wrapped under the chip and attached up around the brow. That's what you are looking at in the second photo.

The problem is that no one really seems to understand how to duplicate the aventail that is pictured in your second photo.
The reproductions that are available on the market are not even close.

Contrast this effigy here:

With the modern "aventail" reproduction here:

If you can figure out how to nail down the proper look with a proper aventail, please share your secrets with the rest of us.

I am experimenting myself to try to figure this one out.Firesteel Designs
Hand-crafted good lovingly infused with hemoglobin

There have been a few threads/attempts and theories about this in the past...

I think you first need to decide what kind of look you want for your coif. I think it changed through the 11th -14th centuries - in terms of how it looked and how it was fastened. Often with several different methods around at the same time.

As already mentioned, I think you want the 'integral look' (this would be contemporary with a conical helm) - but it's difficult to get it to work without the rest of the hauberk 'anchoring' the base of the coif in place...

The mid 13c sees what is probably the first seperate coifs appearing (in germany) - as per the St Maurice effigy (Gambeson.pl do a good re-creation of this) - but that isn't very shaped...:

I have seen a period image of this style of coif which included ties from the bottom corners linking front-to-back underarm to keep it in place - and also a tie around the neck...

I believe there is an early 14c example of a coif which had a vertical split at the back of the neck which was tied up. This would be a very easy way to make the neck part narrower while still being able to get the coif over the head. Obviously this design was for a seperate coif.

On yours, I'd suggest the doing the first thing I did with mine - which is to take out the rectangular section at the neck (ie take two vertical lines down from each bottom corner of the face-opening to the bottom of the coif) - and then join the two sides back up. This will give you a pointed bottom to the coif which you can close up to be the right size as to stop just under your chin. It's an easy change, the neck will be tighter and you will lose the gape - however your chin will still be bare. But then you could try to use the spare mail you just 'liberated' to make a small, fixed ventail to cover the chin..
(and if you get the neck too tight - or want it tighter, you can add the split up the back)

One simple suggestion too (and a personal beef with a lot of uk reenactors doing the period).. Tuck the coif into your surcote.. It will help hold it in place, make it look a lot more like an integrated coif and give you a much better 'profile' for the period.

Corey,
The answer is tailoring. It is like posting a picture of a "Hoodie" and a designer tee shirt and asking how to make one look like the other. Very few people tailor their mail and in a way its easier than tailoring fabric, because you can change the shape anywhere you want, by adding or subtracting rings. It is not as difficult as it may seem. Here is a link to a tailored mail sleeve to give you an idea what should be done with mail. Edit, found a better link: http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewto...p;t=157253Chris

A fellow forumite Sander Marechal describes how he modified his coif. I have the exact same coif Sander has, with the same problems, and i just pretty much followed what he did and got an almost matching results. My coif now looks almost exactly like Sander's does. It should work fine for you too, as it looks like your coif is like ours...

A fellow forumite Sander Marechal describes how he modified his coif. I have the exact same coif Sander has, with the same problems, and i just pretty much followed what he did and got an almost matching results. My coif now looks almost exactly like Sander's does. It should work fine for you too, as it looks like your coif is like ours...

YES! YES! YESSSSSS!

Thank you, Mr. Lindfors! That's exactly what I was looking for. I had seen a picture of Mr. Merechal's coif on a different thread and sent him a PM in regards to it, but he hasn't seen it yet. Would that I had known he had posted a thread about it. It sounds like, before i do this, I had better make a final decision on a gambeson, so that I can take the diameter of the collar into consideration before I alter my coif, so that the neck fits properly. Otherwise, this sounds perfect. Thanks again. Just what I needed.

And thank you to everyone else, as well. I really appreciate all your help.

I actually have a coif that does what you want yours to do, What I would suggest is buying some rings and closing up the facial opening to tailor it more. Also would suggest using either leather or jute tie cord to go around it so it fits tighter and looks more like what you'd see on the effigies.

I'm happy to answer any questions on it since my wiki page is really more of a log of what I've been trying to do than a set of instructions on how to create the final results. When I do finally think I'm happy with it, I'll create a new page with a detailed description of how it is and how I would go about creating it from scratch knowing what I know now. I'll probably add a drawing and more detailed photos to explain. It's tricky at the minute with the current page.

Yes, there is a helmet under the coif.

There is no padding on the chin, just the leather edging continues inside the chin part to keep raw mail off my face. The ventail just happens to be a bit baggy there, but I'm trying to tighten it.

The ventail just happens to be a bit baggy there, but I'm trying to tighten it.

Don't tighten it too much, as it will restrict your ability to turn your head once attached, and limit the ability to fit a gorget beneath. The Maciejowski Bible has plenty of examples of a gorget bulge at the neck:

Since we also have lots of examples of the nail coif being shown down in both miniatures and effigies, I agree with Mac that it would be nice to see how it looks off the face for comparison. I started tagging miniatures showing the coif off the head at manuscriptminiatures.com as "mail coif, doffed"

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